[MD] Individual v Collective

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Mike]
I still think it's no coincidence that this self-awareness emerged at around the
same time as science really took off.

[Arlo]
Are you suggesting that people did not have a sense of themselves as
"self-aware" before Descartes? Do you not think, for example, that (the
original Greek) Phaedrus saw himself as soley an ant in a colony?

I think what's happened here is that the time you point out (Descartes, science)
is exactly when the MALADY of the "individual v. collective" perspective
emerged. I would submit that prior to that, and in most non-Western traditions,
there is no conflict, and this is not because the "individual" disappears in
the "collective", but because these other perspectives see "man" as
dialogically interwoven, and this is a GOOD interweaving.

Our "consciousness" is not distinct, nor is it indistinguishable. Rather, it
emerges dialogically as what IS distinct "interacts" with what is NOT.